| INSPIRATIONAL
LANDSCAPE NOMINATION |
| PLACE:
Kenilworth Bluff
LOCATION:
Sunshine Coast hinterland,
5kms north of Kenilworth, Queensland. |
Duwirri from the East – Photograph by
Kev Franzi |
|
DESCRIPTION:
The
Kenilworth Bluff is most frequently described as ‘majestic’.
Geologically is an outlier of the Blackall Range but separated
from it by the serpentine incisive action of the Mary River
over millennia. Its plateau, several kilometres long, rises
above the Mary Valley to a height of 529 metres above sea
level. It includes an impressive cliff to the south, a powerful
rock outcrop named Duwirri to the north, and the rounded knob
called Bloolou to the east. The highest point is Bonoum.
It
is visible from a wide area. While it towers above the small
town of Kenilworth, it can also be seen from as far away as
Gympie and from coastal landforms as far east as the Cooloola
Sandpatch, part of the Cooloola National Park.
Much
of the upper catchment of the Mary River is on the Blackall
Range and, more particularly, among the wonderfully diverse
forests of the Conondale Range. The Mary runs northward, to
the east of the Bluff, eventually emptying into Hervey Bay
in the lee of Fraser Island.
Most
of the Bluff retains its natural vegetation (Remnant Vegetation
under Queensland legislation) and this, combined with its
stark and impressive rock formations, makes it an outstanding
feature.
|
Bluff From My Verandah – Photograph by Kev
Franzi |
| |
LAND
TENURE:
Much
of the Kenilworth Bluff lies in the Cooloola Shire, in the
form of some dozen or so freehold properties. These all run
from the more gentle foothills up the steeper slopes and onto
the rather plateau-like summit. On the Shire’s Strategic
Plan, it is designated as an “Area of Environmental
Significance.”
A
small portion to the south lies within Maroochy Shire and,
commendably, this council, in 1992 and 1997, acted to acquire
this area [nearly 124 ha] as a Conservation Park, Kenilworth
Bluff / Wilcox Family Park. The Maroochy Shire Strategic Plan
designates Conservation as the Preferred Dominant Land Use.
|
| |
| WHY
IT IS INSPIRATIONAL:
Many
will describe the Bluff as having a ‘powerful
presence’ but how does one quantify this? Perhaps
it’s why it’s not uncommon to find artist
with easel at any one of a number of vantage points,
Perhaps it has to do with the spectacular light on
the western side just before sunset. |
Duwirri Sunset– Photograph by Birgit Kehr,
photojournalist,
as featured on cover of her Kenilworth –
a photo essay… 2004 |
|
| |
Seasons Of Duwirri – Photographs by Maggie
Gall |
It
has certainly acted as a source of inspiration.
I
attach photographs, paintings, and a verse as examples
of various aspects as captured by several photographers,
artists and poets.
It is a much-photographed landmark. |
|
SPIRITUAL
/ CONTEMPLATIVE:
To
walk on the summit is generally described as having
the feel of a lost world, a world where the hand of
man rests lightly on the landscape.
While
the walk is popular, it is rather difficult. At no
time in my wanderings on the Bluff have I come across
other walkers. It provides a wonderful communion of
walkers and a very natural environment.
One
walker recently commented on the absence of lantana
on the southern summit. Lantana (lantana camara) is
an invasive introduced plant, now widespread through
the area, frequently along road edges, clearings and
gullies, but through native forests as well. While
it is found on the slopes of the Bluff, its absence
on the southern summit adds to the sense of a walk
back in time, a decidedly pre-European feel. |
Duwirri – Painting by Maggie Gall |
|
With
the rapidly increasing population growth in the Sunshine Coast
and its hinterland, there will be an ever-increasing demand
for wild places. The visual effect of such places always holds
a strong appeal and for those intrepid walkers who climb to
the summit, their efforts are rewarded with a most memorable
experience.
|
| |
Eastern View – Photograph by Arkin
Mackay |
“The
dramatic landform and range in altitude,
aspect and vegetation communities…
contribute to its conservation value and
high biodiversity… supporting a known
440 species and a mosaic of vegetation types.”
Kenilworth Bluff Wilcox Family Park Management
Plan
Maroochy Shire Council |
|
|
BIODIVERSITY:
Several
years ago, botanist Ann Moran compiled a huge list of
plants on just a brief trip to part of the Bluff. She
expressed continual surprise at many of the species
she found, as the area acts as a kind of botanical refugia.
Other
features include a tea-tree (Melaleuca quinquinervia)
swamp on the summit toward the north-east and an impressive
episodic waterfall towards the south-east. Part of this
swamp is fringed with Bungwall Fern (Blechnum indicum),
an important food plant for indigenous Australians. |
|
|
| INDIGENOUS
CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE: |
| A
local story told by the late Mr Bob Beattie who grew
up at Kenilworth Homestead, stated that aboriginal people
used a plant found exclusively on the Bluff as a contraceptive.
The
Bluff lay on the pathway from the coast out to Rocky
Hole Creek, which was apparently the source of good
rock for tools. University of Queensland Anthropologist
Sue Davies has made a number of visits to the summit
and has catalogued a number of signs of visitation and
usage. Various sources refer to burial remains being
found in a cleft in a rock formation in the seventies. |
View from the Southern End by Arkin Mackay
|
|
Duwirri
– Poem by Ian Mackay, poet,
from Kenilworth… a photo essay |
Duwirri,
the impressively powerful rock outcrop at the northern
end of the Bluff was reputedly used to herd wallabies
to their death. Local legend has it that, much later,
it was a site where aboriginal people met a similar
fate at the hands of white settlers.
In
conversation some years ago, Michael Strong, curator
of the Abbey Museum [Toorbul] and a keen student of
indigenous history, described the Kenilworth Bluff
as ‘perhaps the most significant site between
the coast and the Bunya Mountains.’
A
bora ring was recorded as being at Moy Pocket, just
to the south-east of the Bluff |
|
| |
| CORRIDOR
SIGNIFICANCE:
With
its close proximity to the Conondale Range forest
mosaic, and reaching almost down to the Mary River,
the significance of the heavily vegetated Bluff as
a conservation corridor is well recognised. It is
one of just a few places where forests make contact
with the river, which is then in contact [via various
tributaries] to the forests of the Blackall Range. |
Cover page of The Kenilworth Bluff…
a preliminary but Urgent Plea for Protection
– Submission by the Moy Pocket and Lower Kenilworth
Progress Association, November 1990 |
|
| |
Memories of Bluff’s Lost World– Article
by Stan Tutt OAM, historian,
from Sunshine Coast Daily, Sept 1990
|
RECOGNITION:
I
include a copy of a newspaper column by renowned Sunshine
Coast historian Stan Tutt OAM. Stan actually spent
much of his early life growing bananas on the southern
slopes of the Bluff. His wonderful autobiography ‘In
the Company of Ghosts’ [2000] paints a vivid
picture of life on the land between the wars and in
particular his gradual change from clearing forests
to being a founding member of the Sunshine Coast Environment
Council. |
|
| I
have attached to this submission the work of a number
of artists inspired by the Bluff. Further photographic
recognition can be found in the form of a huge photo-mural
on the wall of the Department of Natural Resources Office
in Gympie. This stunningly spectacular photograph pans
from the Mary River in the foreground sweeping to the
Bluff behind. |
Bloolou
– Photograph by Arkin Mackay |
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